Loud and noisy places in general. One of the scariest parts of USMC boot camp for me was the rifle range because of the gun fire. I would stress out that my ear plugs weren’t in good enough. I also remember wondering how other recruits seemed completely unbothered by it.

Gas-powered lawn equipment. Weed whackers and leaf blowers in particular. All mine are electric.

Large social groups. It’s like it’s too much to keep track of, too many people with differing intentions, and everyone is traveling in different directions. It’s disorienting.

When I was a child, it was car a/c. For some reason, it would give me headaches. I had to travel with the windows down…except for on the expressway because it was too loud. In that case, we would turn on the a/c very lightly.

Apparently, smells. They too can be disorienting. I lose it with farts. In my mid 30s, I went on a date with a girl I had recently started dating. We were at a bar outside of a military base. While there, someone drops a hell of a fart. My completely-normal-to-me reaction was to put my shirt collar over my nose and walk around a little. My date started laughing, maybe thinking I was joking. The person farted a few more times. She made fun of me for that for years. In retrospect, I think it was her that was farting, which is why she found it so funny.

More recently, I was at a dance class a few months ago. We were practicing moves by repeating them. Someone farted at least 4 times, and it was terrible. I don’t know how they had the audacity to keep farting after the first one, or how no one said anything. I was getting disoriented and messing up my moves. I was visibly upset in the mirror and so close to leaving. I’m pretty sure I know who it was, so now every time I see them, I get upset and a little nauseous. 😠🤢 I don’t like being around them at all and even saying hi to them.

For me, for example, is a cigarette smoke, I can’t stand it.